Porsche’s $5,295 Course Teaches Art of Speed; Nerve’s Up to You

Driver Hurley Haywood at a Porsche Sport Driving School Masters Plus race license course event at Barber Motorsports Park in Leeds, Alabama. The Porsche Masters Plus is a three-day course where students can get their Sports Car Club of America driving license. Photographer: Gary Tramontina/Bloomberg

April 15 (Bloomberg) -- On the side of a steep hairpin turn
at Barber Motorsports Park racetrack, racing legend Hurley
Haywood has his eye on me. That’s because I’ve come in waaay too
hot and my Porsche 911, tires smoking, is hurtling sideways
toward the spot where Haywood is standing.

Joggling the wheel to regain control, I give a sheepish
wave to the iconic Porsche race driver and then roar away.

Having Haywood, who has won the 24 Hours of Daytona five
times and Le Mans 24 Hours thrice, watch over novices is like
having Celtics basketball star Larry Bird coach a junior-varsity
team. Haywood, chief driving instructor, helped start the
Porsche Sport Driving School and attends 20 classes a year.

The three-day Masters Plus program is Porsche’s most
advanced course in the U.S., costing $5,295. Graduates get a
race license to the Sports Car Club of America, allowing drivers
to enter regional races.

This will be my year of speed. At 37, I’ve spent a dozen
years testing sport cars, with a handful of track days each
year. It’s like skiing: You need time to get your legs back in
shape, and even more to actually improve. I’ve resolved to
polish skills and do actual bumper-to-bumper racing. This will
kick me off.

I have no Schumacher illusions but I’m decently fast. Even
if I’m not a natural, I feel more alive on a racetrack than
almost any other place. Zen-like, you’ve gotta be present in the
moment -- a second’s inattention is a killer.

Women-Only Class

Porsche’s school is an excellent place to get started or
hit that next level. It’s progressive: All students must first
take the one- or two-day High Performance course, from $1,795 to
$2,955 (there’s also a women-only class).

You learn basic handling skills on a skid pad as well as
strategies on how to negotiate a road course. Road courses have
twists and turns, hills and crests, unlike Nascar’s oval type of
racing.

Next is the two-day Masters course ($3,495), where students
lap at their own pace. Students who complete the Masters can
jump to the Masters Plus, where laps are nearly unlimited and
passing techniques are taught.

All of this takes place at a pristine 2.3-mile road course
in Birmingham, Alabama. The dream of local businessman George
Barber, the track has 16 corners, steep elevation changes, a
blind crest, a corkscrew and a hairpin.

Your learning tool is a base, 345-horsepower Porsche 911
with the sport function disabled. For many Porsche owners, it’s
a humbling experience -- in the hands of the instructors, this
basic model is still shockingly fast.

Perfect Corner

The instructors are the school’s best asset. In addition to
Haywood, I recognize most of the guys from my first time here
seven years ago. Excellent at assessing weaknesses, they still
seem enthusiastic as a kindergarten teacher when you hit a
corner perfectly.

Over three days, the 21 other students, who range from
former CEOs to surgeons, will drive some 150 laps. Everyone
stays at the same hotel, Ross Bridge Golf Resort, with meals
included and taken together. With so many alpha types, it is
competitive and collegial.

On my final afternoon session, I am in the pits, car turned
on, helmet buckled, waiting to pull onto the track. The calm
moments just before. Control your breathing, let your mind go
blank. After all, a part of your psyche questions why you’d want
to drive at 110 miles per hour into a dangerous curve.

Then I’m off, building speed. I pass a dawdling driver on
the left, drag the 911 back onto the racing line just before a
descending hairpin. Stomp hard on the brake before downshifting
the manual transmission and blipping the throttle. A complex
move, made in blurred seconds. A mistake could be catastrophic.
(There’s never been a death at the school, the management says.)

Ragged Edge

I’m in the flow now, relaxed, and I blow down the
descending corkscrew, one of the track’s most difficult and
scary turns, and my favorite. To get it right you have to feel
like you’re on the ragged edge, just this side of losing
control.

The engine is screaming and I’ve got the air conditioner
turned way up. I’m sweating.

I roar through the flat ess curves, barely slowing,
touching the left wheels on the curb. Perfect. Then a fast
descending left followed by an uphill right. I screw it up every
time.

Eyes up, following the curve of the road, pushing the car
as hard as I dare, tires whining. I’m on the bumper of a slower
car now, pushing him. Students are not allowed to pass here; I
have to wait, but I’m still on the gas, getting closer and
closer -- feet apart.

Last Turn

Then the last major turn of the course, a steep downhill
leading into the long front straightaway.

I blast by the other guy. I run the 911 to redline all the
way up to fourth gear -- past 100 mph -- before slamming hard on
the brakes and starting all over again. I’ve got 22 minutes to
get at least one perfect lap.

My first real race is within a month, where dozens of cars
will be crowding the track trying to pass one another. I think
I’ll be ready.